


What Is The Difference

by Ingol



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 12:25:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13704438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ingol/pseuds/Ingol
Summary: ...between desperation and determination?Reincarnation works in strange ways. Who says that life after death is necessarily easy?





	What Is The Difference

A baby opened her eyes, groggy from a deadly nightmare, and saw a monster. The baby screamed, and was promptly rocked into a hush by a warm embrace that held the scent of wild flowers.

“It’s nothing to worry about, Takane-chan. It’s a friend.” A woman murmured.

The baby gurgled and reached out a hand. The arachnoid let itself be pet once, twice, then it scuttled away.

The woman gently placed the baby into a crib where another slumbering baby lay.

“Take care of your younger brother, Takane-chan. I love the both of you.” The woman pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads and left.

The baby felt a keening sense of loss and cried silently, while her brother slept on peacefully.

* * *

 

Natsume Takane had a little brother named Takeshi, and ever since she was a baby, she could see monsters.

She wondered if she had been reborn into a shounen manga of some sorts. Was she supposed to be part of some secret group of exorcists who enslaved these monsters- yōkai to save the world? Would there be some horrendous yōkai rising up to devour the world and it lay to her to defeat it?

Or, she thought to herself as she waved to her younger brother, was she meant to be a side-character, part of a tragic backstory for her brother to rise to glory?

She beamed at Takeshi and held his hand, swinging their arms as they walked back to their father merrily.

No.

She promised her late mother, the one who had brought her into this world, that she would protect her younger brother.

And coming from the woman who had possibly known that her daughter was not as she seemed, but took care of her anyway, she intended to fully keep that promise, even if it meant shattering the plot of whatever manga she was supposed to be part of now.

She was going to stay alive, until her brother was old enough to take care of himself, and she was going to damned well die a peaceful death, even if it killed her… which was the goddamned point in the first place.

* * *

 

The news of her father’s death was unsurprising.

Takane held her brother’s hand in her own and patted his back gently.

The shock hadn’t worn off yet. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but he had just… collapsed.

A heart attack, the doctors had murmured, of mysterious origins.

Takane stared down at her hands. The prospect of being a character who later joined some mysterious exorcist group in an attempt to avenge her father seemed quite likely the more she thought about it.

She turned to look at Takeshi.

He was staring at the ground, worried and nervous and scared and all those negative emotions bundled up together in a small package who shouldn’t have to feel the weight of having both parents dead.

Takane sucked in a deep breath and exhaled.

“We’ll stick together.” She promised.

Takeshi nodded dumbly.

She turned back to look at the dead body.

The most prominent memory she had of him was of them sitting together by the gazebo looking out at the garden of flowers.

The scent of primrose lingered and Takane walked out of the room before her little brother could see her cry.

* * *

 

They were taken in by their father’s relatives.

Takeshi started pointing out the yōkai.

He was slowly getting ostracised by everyone around him.

And Takane…

Takane played the role of a good little girl who couldn’t leave her twin brother’s side…

Until she snapped.

 

They were sent off to another family to be taken care of.

Takane held onto Takeshi’s hand triumphantly, daring anyone to take him from her.

There was a lot of suppressed emotions within her, emotions from dying and being reborn, emotions from being reborn in a foreign place, in what was possibly some sort of shounen manga that would have her and her brother suffer, and that bottle of emotions was filled to the brim, ready to explode at any moment.

 

She took care of Takeshi like she promised her late mother.

She glared down the yōkai, fended away bullies, but the one thing she was unable to do was oppose the authorities that held so much power over her.

She found herself sitting in a train with her boxes of possession, getting farther and farther away from her brother.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

 

“Psychosis.” The doctors had said. “It would do her good to be separated from her twin brother.”

So they did.

They took her away from him.

And for once, she found herself helpless.

How was she supposed to keep her promise?

How could she take care of her little brother, little Takeshi who had yet to learn to lie low?

For the first time in a very long while, she felt like a liar.

She hated liars.

She hated the adults who put on a smiling mask and muttered about her brother behind her back.

* * *

 

Takane ran. She would have to return to the house eventually, but she wanted to enjoy whatever freedom she had for this short period of time.

She came to a stop at a forest shrine.

“I hate you.” She murmured, glaring at the shrine and everything it stood for.

“What use are gods if they can’t even help me?” She stood there by herself, feeling a lot like a fool.

Cool hands curled gently around her shoulders, and Takane startled.

“How can we help you if we don’t know what you need?” A gentle voice asked.

Takane whipped around and saw a woman with her face covered by a veil, dressed in a kimono.

“Oh.” She said dumbly.

“What do you need, little one?” The woman asked.

“I want a lot of things.” Takane said, her voice cracking. “What would it cost me?”

The woman laughed.

“I must admit,” She said, folding her arms delicately, “That I am simply intrigued by a little adult who can see me so clearly.”

“You mean you’re bored, and I’m the only freakshow around here who can see you.” Takane said.

“How crass, but yes.” The woman said.

“I want to keep a promise I made. But I can’t do it.”

“It must mean quite a lot to you.” The woman observed.

Takane paused, and thought about how that promise had became her obsession after her parents’ death.

After her death.

“Yes.” She said, raising her head so that she could look at the woman’s face through the veil.

“I see.” The woman said.

Takane hesitated. The woman was waiting. For what?

“I’m Takane. May I know your name?”

The woman tilted her head.

“You may call me… Megami.”

Takane let out a burst of laughter, then clamped her hands sheepishly over her mouth.

“It is perfectly fine to laugh. I am aware that it is merely a title.” The woman said.

“It’s nice to meet you, Megami-san. Can you help me find my brother again?” Takane asked.

“I shall try.” Megami said, seeming amused and nothing more.

* * *

 

Megami was a forest goddess.

Unsurprising, seeing as Takane found her right in front of a _forest shrine_.

“Your brother is nowhere near here.” Megami said. “Have you tried asking your guardians?”

Takane thought about her current supervisors. ‘Keep them separated.’ The psychologist had said.

“No.” She said decisively. “Adults can’t be trusted.”

Megami looked at her thoughtfully. “You have been hurt, haven’t you?”

Takane’s first response was to deny it, then she realised that this was a goddess she was talking to, no matter how minor. The resulting karma wasn’t worth it.

“Yes. They were the ones who took me away from him in the first place. Adults pretend that they know everything, but in truth, they know nothing. No one ever knows anything.” Takane scuffed at the dirt sulkily.

“I see.” Megami said. “Wise words from a child.”

“I am not a child.” Takane corrected.

Megami seemed to stare at her from under the veil.

“Yes,” She said after a moment, “it appears that you are not.” There was no patronizing tone. Megami truly believed her.

Takane felt the esteem that she held for the goddess rise a few notches.

Maybe yōkai weren’t so bad after all.

* * *

 

Yōkai were horrible creatures.

Takane glared at the laughing kitsune.

“He is but a child.” Megami said serenely, like she wasn’t silently laughing at Takane.

Takane huffed and crossed her arms, feeling a lot like a drowned cat. “I am never trusting a kitsune again.”

“They are merely mischievous.” Megami said.

“I know.” Takane sighed, and looked at the kitsune. “Did you really hear from my brother or not?”

The fox disappeared into a puff of smoke, leaving a teenaged boy in its place.

“I heard of a boy who looked and smelled a lot like you running around the countryside.” The kitsune said.

“Which countryside?” Takane asked eagerly.

He told her, and watched her expression light up in hope and something else.

“Thanks.” She said, passing him an onigiri.

“What happened to not trusting a kitsune?” Said kitsune asked distractedly.

“My brother’s more important.” Takane said.

“Your brother, or your promise?” Megami asked.

Takane stilled.

“Does it matter?” She eventually asked. “I’d be lost without either of them.”

* * *

 

The dead usually stayed dead.

She had died in a flash of fire, from her own reckless stupidity.

She wondered if the baby she tried to save had survived.

Back when she hadn’t lost track of her new life and all its scattered pieces, she would have had more pleasant dreams.

Now, all she dreamt of was dying in a spectacular blaze of glory, a red-hot pipe stuck right through her abdomen.

Her supervisors didn’t starve her or hit her. They didn’t scold her either, which spoke of levels of neglect.

She wondered if her brother was doing better.

She doubted it.

But she had to survive.

For her brother, for that promise still unfulfilled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Found another thing I wrote a while back.


End file.
